Like a Plague
by unbreakbr0ken
Summary: Susan fic. Everyone's going, but why, and how can they be saved?
1. The First Flashback

_**Like a Plague **_

**Chapter 1: The First Flashback**

_It is like a plague. Everyone keeps going, and there was nothing I could do about it. Every time I turn around, someone is gone or going. It is almost unreal. _

Susan Lewis wasn't thinking about patients. She was thinking about the people who worked in County General's ER. It all started two monthsago…

flash back

It was a regular day at the ER. It wasn't too busy, but it wasn't too slow either. Everyone was just going along, taking care of patients. A trauma or two came in, but nothing real exciting happened. It was just a regular day, and everyone was going about with their regular routine. It was almost creepy, how normal and almost… no you can't say perfect, but heck, that's how things were going. Doctors would treat and discharge patients, and that was it. Treat and discharge, treat and discharge, all day long.

It wasn't until the end of her shift that it happened. She was getting ready to go home, after what seemed like the perfect day. What happened next changed that though. She went over to admit, and there was Frank, having a fatal MI.

_Everything has been fatal_, she thinks, coming out of the flashback.

The flashback continues, as Susan screams, "Someone help!" Doctors rush over to help the desk clerk who is clinging onto life. A gurney is brought over, and Frank is lifted onto it. They quickly roll him into the closest trauma room.

An hour later Frank was gone, his lifeless body sitting in the trauma room waiting to be picked up by the morgue. Susan stared through the door, almost afraid to go in. A tear dripped down her face as she goes to tell Frank's family what happened.

Flashback ends

That was the first one. Yes the first one, but not the last. Not nearly the last. There was more to come. Way more to come. There's more, so wait and then read on. We all want to know what happens to the rest of the beloved County General ER staff. But most of all, we all want to know what Susan means by; "_It is like a plague."_


	2. Another “Perfect” Day

**Chapter 2: Another "Perfect" Day**

another flashback

It was a month after Frank had died, and the staff was finally getting used to having him not around. It was just a regular day, wasn't too busy, wasn't too slow. The doctors and nurses were taking care of their patients. The patients would be treated and discharged. Treat and discharge, treat and discharge - that's how the day was going on. Things were going… perfectly, yet again. No troubles, no horrifying traumas yet. It was just a plain old simple day so far. Susan didn't think anything of it, she was just happy that they had a nice simple day ahead of them.

This time it happened in the middle of her shift. She picked up a chart, and looked at the patient's name, Mr. Andrews. She went to curtain area one to go treat and discharge him, like she had been doing all day with other patients. Mr. Andrew's was a pretty big man. He was middle aged, and was complaining of back pain.

Susan steps into Curtain Area One. She sees Mr. Andrews, and walks over to him.

"Hi Mr. Andrews, I'm Dr. Lewis. I see that you're complaining of back pain."

"Yes'serree. Ma'am. Just give me some Demerol, and I should be as good as new."

Mr. Andrews seemed like the typical addict, and indeed he was, as Susan later checked out.

A little while later, Susan comes back to Mr. Andrews. "Mr. Andrews, I'm sorry, but we can't give you any Demerol, we can give you some other painkillers if you'd like."

Mr. Andrew's stares at Susan Lewis. It was a long, creepy stare. Mr. Andrew barges out, but then quickly turns around, knife in hand. Susan sees the knife in Mr. Andrew's hand. The curtain area is closed and nobody can see anything, so she starts screaming, "Help! Security!"

Malik hears Susan's screams, and runs to the curtain area. He sees Mr. Andrews, knife in hand. "Sir, please put the knife down!" Malik tells Mr. Andrews. Mr. Andrews turns around, and before Malik can react, he has a knife stuck in his neck. Security comes, and they handcuff Mr. Andrews.

Abby, Neela, Ray, Carter, and others come over with a gurney. They pick up Malik and rush him to a trauma room…

end of flashback

This is the part where I finish up what happened to Malik and leave you wondering what will happen next, but I think another flashback will do just the trick:

the rest of the flashback

The trauma room is filled with County's best doctors, surgeons, and nurses as they try to fix Malik. The knife had hit an artery, and the surgeons tell everyone that there is no way to repair it. They send their condolences, and leave the ER staff in shock.

It's the second funeral Susan Lewis and the rest of the ER staff had attended in the past month. They can't believe that two of their staff members are gone. _It's going to be hard to replace Malik_, Susan thinks. _Heck, it was hard to find a replacement for Frank._


	3. The Present Day, aka No More Flashbacks

**Chapter 3: The Present Day, aka No More Flashbacks**

The flashbacks are over, and I take you to the present day portion of this sad little story, but first let me fill you in on what has happened in the last two to three weeks after Malik's tragic death. No wait, I'll let you figure it out on your own, as I take you to County General's ER once again, but not in a flashback, thus making it the present day.

Susan ran around frantically. It was a pretty busy day, and the new nurse (the one to replace Malik) had her first shift today. She had asked Sam to show her around, but as usual Sam was late, leaving her with Sydney, the new nurse. Sydney was young. Very young. Like just out of nursing school young. But she seemed like the only normal candidate for the job, so Susan chose her. Too bad she didn't seem so normal now. Sydney was extremely perky. Susan could tell she would never make it here in the ER.

Sam finally comes, late as usual. She takes Sydney into the lounge, then goes to give her the grand tour of the ER. Afterwards, Sam goes off and leaves Sydney on her own, who fits right it despite Susan's earlier thoughts. Things go well until Neela comes down with a fever.

"Neela, you don't look so good, you should really go home."

"I don't know Dr. Lewis, it's really busy here today," she says.

"Neela… you should really go home and get some rest," Susan tells her. A little while later, she finally decides to go home, only to be returned a few hours later by an ambulance.

Susan runs to the ambulance bay. When the doors to the ambulance door open, she realizes it's Neela. She stares at Neela's unconscious body. "Neela?" she says.

"You know her?" one of the paramedics asks.

"Yeah, she works here. I sent her home because she had just a fever," Susan replies.

"Well, she doesn't have just a fever now," the paramedic says as they wheel her into a trauma room and he tells them Neela's vitals.

No one knew what caused the death of Neela. All they knew that it was depressing and tragic. Her family flew in from England to go to her funeral, and she was buried in Chicago.

At the funeral, Susan starts crying. "It was all my fault. I told her to go home. I could've helper her," she says, crying onto Abby's shoulder. Abby gets a little teary too, and then she finally lets her tears escape.


	4. The IV Chapter

_A/N: okie dokes, thanks for all of the reviews they are veryy helpful, but i kind of wrote this a while ago, and dont have the time or patience to really fix it up, thanks anyways though!_

* * *

**Chapter 4: The IV Chapter**

It was a week later, and everyone was still trying to cope with what happened. Neela's family didn't want them to do an autopsy on her, so they would never find out why she died.

The paramedics bring in a lady. She is a little disoriented, they tell Susan. "I don't want to go to this place! Everyone dies here, even the employees!" the lady screams.

"She's not that disoriented," Susan says sarcastically. She takes care of the lady, who was off her meds, yet again, and goes on to the next patient.

Pratt comes in to start his shift a little early. "Hey Pratt I could use a hand over here," Susan tells him.

"Yeah, well I could too," he says, holding his arm. Susan goes over to him.

"What happened?" she asks.

"I injured it while playin' basketball. Think I must have torn a ligament or something," he tells her. "Hurts like hell," he adds in.

"Okay, why don't you go find an empty bed, and I'll get you hooked up to an IV. It'll make the pain go away faster."

Pratt goes to look for a bed, while Susan goes to get an IV. She finds him, and hooks the IV up. "Just rest for a while," she tells him. Soon Pratt falls fast asleep, tired from playing too much basketball.

A little while later, Susan is checking on Greg. "Pratt, Pratt!" she yells, trying to wake him. He doesn't move. She looks over and inspects the IV bag. It has a hole in it. "What the…" Susan starts to say, but before she can say anything, Pratt starts seizing. Susan rips out the IV and screams for help.

They get him into a trauma room, and Susan orders a tox screen, medicine to help the seizure, and other things. "He won't stop seizing," Abby says, stating the obvious. "What happened?" she asks.

"I don't know someone must have put something in the IV bag. Okay push more… whatever," Susan mumbles. The seizure starts to slow down, along with his heart rate.

"Charging to 250, Clear!" Abby says. They shock him. "300?" she suggests.

She charges it to 300, shocks him, and nothing happens. The same happens with 360. Susan goes and turns off all the monitors. She goes by Pratt and closes his open eyes. "Why… does… everyone… keeppp…dying?" she asks, shaking and crying.


	5. The Overdose

**Chapter 5: The Overdose **

It was four days later. Not even two months and four people dead. Four people gone, only to be replaced by four new people. Susan wondered when the replacements would start to need to be replaced. She wondered who would be next. Deep down inside she could feel it, another death lingering in the air. It was a creepy feeling, sensing what would happen next. It was this feeling that had kept her awake these past nights, until only the tears and sobs could make her gently fall asleep.

Some could say she was depressed, but she didn't show it, not one bit. She went on each day as if it were any other, trying to ignore the feeling of death around her. She was on the graveyard shift today, a particularly slow one, which made her all the more afraid something tragic might happen. Just as she was thinking that, Jerry announced a trauma was coming in- the first trauma of the particularly slow night. Susan got ready, and went to wait outside in the ambulance bay.

A few minutes later, with Sam and Luka by her side, the ambulance pulls up. "Possible overdose, BP's 80 over 30..." the paramedic says, but Susan doesn't hear the rest, because when she takes a look at the person on the gurney, she sees Abby being pulled out of the ambulance and towards the ER doors.

They rush her into a trauma room, hook up some IV's and monitors, and order a tox screen. "There's nothing we can do until we figure out what she took," says Luka.

Susan stares at Abby's still figure. The tears start to come, but she pulls them back. She had to be strong. "Why… did you… have to…go?" Susan sniffles, looking at the lifeless body of her best friend. It isn't until then that she finds the letter. Susan takes it out and reads it. In the letter, it tells them what Abby took. Susan looks at Abby. "We…could have… I… could have… saved…you…" she says, letting the tears flow. "And… I had… this feeling… something would… something like… this… would happen…and…if I found the letter…" Susan gets hysterical. As Luka walks by he goes to the trauma room, seeing Susan like this.

"Come on," he says, as he helps Susan out of the room. A single tear drops down his face, but he wipes it away before anyone can see it. Susan is able to pull herself together, and goes to call Abby's family.


	6. A Funeral, Plus More Tragedy

**Chapter 6: A Funeral, Plus More Tragedy **

Two days after Abby's successful suicide attempt was her funeral. All of the ER staff went- those who were still alive that is. With five people dead - Frank, Malik, Neela, Pratt, and then Abby, there wasn't many left. Susan was finding it hard to find good replacements, and was left with the memories of the people she had to replace. Soon it would get too much. It would get too much for anyone, having to replace some of their best friends.

Back in Chicago, Steve now had a mission. Yes Steve, Samantha Taggart's loser user ex. Of course he was high; it was just now he had a mission. Somehow he had escaped or gotten out of jail, and now he was roaming the streets, looking for the girl he once loved. Yes, that's correct, once loved. Steve had lots of time to think about things in jail, and decided he didn't need little Samantha, and that if he didn't need her, neither did anyone else. Yes, I know there's Alex, but this is Steve we are talking about here, and Alex would be the prize for completing his mission.

Steve waited outside Sam's apartment. He could hear someone inside, but he knew it wasn't her. Just at that moment, he saw her coming towards the apartment. He lifted up his gun, aimed and shot. Lucky for Sam, little Alex here heard something. He opened the door, only to find his mother shot and his father the shooter. With that he closed the door, locked it before Steve could get in, and went to go call 911.

Steve flees the crime scene, and the ambulance comes to pick up Sam. Alex gets a ride to the hospital with one of the police officers that came, and the drive to County General begins.

"I'm afraid we lost this one, Dr. Lewis. She was a fighter though. Damn bastard really knew what he was doing," one of the paramedics says as they open up the ambulance door and wheel out Sam, now lifeless and covered in blood. Susan sees that it's Sam.

"NO! Not again!" she screams. Then she runs: something she never does. Yes, Susan Lewis runs. She runs through the ER, to the elevator, and up to the roof. She hangs her head over the edge, and tries to breathe. "So… many… deaths…" she starts to say, until she is interrupted by someone.

"Hey Susan what happened?" Luka asks.

Susan turns around. "Oh shit," she says. Luka gives her a questioning look. "You didn't just see that last trauma being pulled in, did you?"

"No, why?"

Susan tries to decide how to break the news to Luka. "Well, it was Sam. And she was DOA," she says. Luka looks at her, not believing what she has just said. "No, no, no!" is all he could make out before he starts to run downstairs to see if it is really true.


	7. Calculating the Days

**Chapter 7: Calculating the Days**

Sam had just died a day ago, and instead of grieving, Luka would pile himself up in work and funeral arrangements. Susan noticed how much quicker the deaths were getting; one would die in about half the time the previous person did from the other. It went on like a long chain. Frank died, and then one month later Malik died. After that, about 15 days later Neela died and about a week after that Pratt died. Four days later Abby went, and in another two days Sam was gone. _That makes today a death day_, Susan thought wearily trying to calculate the days.

The day went on, and on. Nothing happened but just when Susan was getting hopeful Ray walked in, choking on something nonetheless. "Ray!" Susan screams and goes over to help him before he started to turn blue. She wraps her arms around him, and squeezes until whatever is in Ray's mouth shoots out. She shakes her head as Ray thanks her for saving his life.

Susan walks over to the family room, because she hears odd noises. She opens the door and looks in as a particularly aggressive family is beating up Wendall, the social worker. She is on the ground, bruises forming and blood coming out of her nose and ears. "Stop!" Susan screams at the family. They look up for a second, but then continue to beat up Wendall. Susan runs and gets security, and they pull the family members off Wendall and handcuff them.

Gallant comes, ready with a gurney. They lift Wendall onto it, and wheel her into an open trauma room. "She's not breathing!" Gallant yells.

"Well, get an intubation tray!" Susan tells him. Chuny throws him the tray and Gallant rips it open, and starts to intubate Wendall.

"I'm in," he says once Wendall is getting the much needed oxygen. After that, they suture up Wendall's lacerations and wait for her to wake up.

Five hours later, Wendall has still not woken up. Gallant notifies Dr. Lewis, who tells him to order her a head CT. The head CT comes back with the worst possible news. "She's gone," Dr. Lewis says, staring at the CT of Wendall's head. She goes to find Wendall's family, to tell them that Wendall is indeed brain dead and for them to decide what they would like to do with her.

It takes a while for Susan to convince them to take her off life support, and when they finally do decide to, Gallant comes in to tell them Wendall's heart stopped and they weren't able to revive her.


	8. To Contemplate

**Chapter 8: To Contemplate **

About twelve hours after Wendall died, Susan's pager went off as she was on her way home. She made a U turn and headed back to the ER. "What happened?" she asks groggily as she makes her way into the ER.

"Go up on the roof and check," Dr. Chen tells her. Susan wonders what she could mean by that, and decides to go see for herself.

She presses the elevator door and steps in. She presses the button to go to the roof and the elevator brings her up there. The door opens and she steps out. On the side of the ledge is Jake, looking over. "Jake!" she yells. Jake turns around. "What are you doing?" she asks.

"Contemplating," he says, plain and simple.

"Whether to jump?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I figured if Abby could do it, so could I."

"Commit suicide? Jake, why don't we go downstairs and talk about this."

"No, I can't stand to be without her. If I jump, I might have a chance to see her again."

"Jake-" she starts to protest, but before she can say anything else, Jake is gone and falling down towards the hard cement ground. "No!" she screams, as she looks down, and then runs towards the elevator. She pushes the down button frantically until finally the elevator doors open.

Susan runs out of the elevator and outside to where Jake jumped. She rushes over to his limp body and checks his pulse. There's nothing, and he's not breathing. "Jake, no you're not dead, please wake up," she says, shaking him a little bit while tears form and slip down her face.


	9. How and Why

**Chapter 9: How and Why**

Six hours later and the people from the morgue finally come to pick up Jake's body. Nobody believed Susan when she told them what happened, but once they got a good look at Jake's lifeless body they were sure she was telling the truth. With nothing else to, and not wanting to go home, Susan moped around the ER, taking care of patients.

"You should go home Susan," Dr. Carter told her, but she didn't listen. It would be easier if she just absorbed herself in work.

"Where's Ray?" she asks, annoyed. "He's over twenty minutes late!"

Her question was soon answered when an MVA pulled in- one of the victims was Ray. "Ray?" she asks, seeing if he is responsive. Ray mumbles something inaudible as they make their way to the trauma room. One of Ray's legs is severely crushed, and both of his lungs have collapsed. They intubate him and get him ready for the OR- he would need major surgery for his leg.

Susan volunteers to take him up to the OR, and she even decides to stay with him, since she wasn't even technically on a shift.

About two hours into the surgery, complications start to happen. Susan stares at Elizabeth Corday and the rest of the surgeons trying to fix Ray. In the end, they are unable to stop the bleeding and have to amputate his leg. Halfway through the amputation, Ray's heart stops because he had lost so much blood. They shock him and start compressions, but in the end Ray's heart fails, leaving another member of the ER staff dead.

Susan can't believe this. In less that one day, three people were dead. How was this even possible? They all died, but in completely different ways (plus Jake was suicidal), so they couldn't be connected, so how, and why?


	10. Overtime and More Deaths

_im just gonna post the rest of the chapters, cause no one seems to be liking this..._

**Chapter 10: Overtime and More Deaths**

Three hours later, and Susan was still at work. She decided to work on a few charts, but that turned into a three hour production. Getting tired, she decides to go get a coffee, and rather than having to walk across the street, she decides to get coffee from the lounge, not caring how bad it may taste. She walks in and finds Lydia on the floor passed out, eyes open wide. "Can I get some help in here!" Susan screams at the door as she runs over to help one of the ER's oldest nurses.

Dr. Carter and some other nurses rush into the lounge to help Susan. They lift up Lydia onto a gurney and wheel her into a trauma room. "What happened?" Dr. Carter asks.

"I don't know, I went into the lounge for coffee, and found her in here passed out." Susan tells them. They manage to get Lydia into the trauma room and intubate her. She seems better once that is done, but she still isn't right. Susan informs them they just have to wait for the tests to come back.

An hour later, the test results arrive and show that Lydia has a very low white blood cell count, which probably means she has cancer. While Susan is looking at the results, Lydia starts to quietly pass away in her sleep. Susan and the others looking at the results rush over to Lydia and shock her. Nothing happens, and Dr. Carter decides to open her up. They open her up and are working on her for about thirty minutes, when Susan tells them to just call it. They call the time of death and walk out of the trauma room, where they are informed that Jerry is in the next trauma room and Dr. Chen and Kovac need as much help as they can in there.

Susan and Carter rush into the next trauma room. "What happened?" they both ask at the same time.

"I think he was choking on something," Dr. Chen says. "When we found him he was blue and on the ground," she finishes, informing them on what has happened.

"Did you get whatever he was choking on out?"

"Yeah, but he's still not breathing and has probably been deprived of oxygen for too long," Dr. Chen tells them as Dr. Kovac is examining Jerry's throat.

"Its swollen shut," he tells them.

"Great," Dr. Chen says sarcastically.

Twenty minutes later, and no change since Susan and Carter joined them, Kovac tells them to call it and walks out of the room. The others follow, and Susan goes to the lounge to rest.


	11. The Final Chapter

**Chapter 11: The Final Chapter**

Susan wakes up. She looks at her watch and realizes she has been sleeping for about an hour. She walks out of the lounge and sees that everyone is being held at gunpoint by some psycho. She stops at the door, now motionless. Practically all of the staff is out by admit and the lounge. _Shit_, Susan thinks.

The person with the gun fires. The first victim, a patient falls to the ground. Susan wants to go run and help, but can't as she sees the man with the gun surveying the room. Susan squeezes her eyes shut as to not let the tears out. Another gunshot sounds. Susan opens her eyes. Gallant is down. She turns around, and Luka is on the floor, but he hasn't been shot. She takes a good look at him, and realizes he is dead.

She doesn't know what to do. The man has killed two people so far and Luka was gone but not killed by the mysterious man with the gun.

Out of the corner of her eye, Susan sees someone running towards Carter. She thinks its help, but the person stabs Carter. She turns around, tears coming down and body trembling. _Not again_, she thinks. She hears more gunshots, and more people going down- Dr. Chen, Halleh, even Kerry. _It is like a plague. Everyone keeps going, and there is nothing I could do about it. Every time I turn around, someone is gone or going. It is almost unreal. _Everything seems blurry and to be spinning, and she just hears more gunshots and screams. "Help! Someone help!" she screams out. She hears more gunshots. She looks around her and sees blood everywhere. Everything is still blurring and seems to be spinning. She hears muffled pleas for help as she starts to walk forward. "Help! Someone help! Security!" she screams, trying to make her way to admit to find a phone. She can't find anything, and starts to scream again. "HELP!" she screams as her body trembles.

"Susan, wake up honey, it's just a dream," Chuck says calmly, shaking her.

"Huh?" she asks sleepily. "Where is everyone?" she asks. "Are they okay? Who died?" she asks him.

"What? No one's dead, it was just a dream," Chuck tells her.

_Just a dream_, she thinks. _Just a dream_, she thinks again letting out a sigh of relief.


End file.
